Amanda Shires Teams With Matt Mahurin on ‘Look Like A Bird’ (Video Premiere)

By

Eric R. Danton

Apr 29, 2014 2:29 pm ET

Amanda Shires knows that she doesn’t know much about making videos, so the singer and violin player set out to find someone who does. She picked Matt Mahurin, who directed, shot and edited Shires’ new clip for “Look Like a Bird,” which premieres today on Speakeasy.

In fact, working with Shires was a good fit, Mahurin says. Not only did he fall for her music, the director says he liked her approach to collaborating: they talked directly about which song would work best, and then set up the shoot without involving management or record-label intermediaries. “We got along great,” Mahurin says. “We just hung out for the day, me, her, the camera and her fiddle. That was it. The tools of our trade.”

They shot Shires’ scenes in a single day in New York last fall, and then Mahurin edited the clip together. It’s an abstract treatment of the song, interspersing shots of the singer with binoculars and climbing a tree with animated segments, all rendered in a muted palette that Mahurin says is brighter than his usual look. “I used colors for this video I don’t think I’ve ever used before because of her energy and her spirit,” he says. “It allowed me to go outside my comfort zone a little bit.”

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